Tianna Xander (5 page)

“
Where’s May?” Tansy ran to
April, the oldest, and knelt down beside her. “And what’s with
Summer’s electrical display?”

“
I’m pissed! That’s what’s
with the display.” Summer, the sister with blonde hair and blue
eyes stood up and began to pace, her eyes flashing sapphire sparks.
“Someone has kidnapped May and they’d better watch out. If I find
out who they are, I’ll let loose with more electrical storms.” She
raised her fist in the air. “I don’t give a crap that I have a hard
time controlling it. I’ll call down so much power from the sky,
I’ll shove a damned lightning bolt up their ass when I find
them.”

Chapter Four

Tansy shook her head and sighed. “It’s
always something, isn’t it?” She felt the blood rush from her head,
guilt filling her mind. “She wasn’t out looking for Rose and
me?”

“
No.” April wrapped her arm
around her and drew her close. “There’s no need to feel guilty. May
knew you were safe and Tony was going to get you. She was out
shopping and went into a feminine boutique.” April shook her head.
“May flat out refused to let her escort follow her while she was
picking out underwear, so they stayed outside the
store.”

April pressed her lips together and
took a deep breath. Tansy could see that her older sister was
trying not to cry, not that any of them would blame her if she lost
it. “They waited for her for over an hour before they decided to
investigate.” She shrugged. “You know how May is.”

Every one of them knew how she was. May
loved to torment their escorts by making them wait long periods of
time while she shopped.

“
They said she did her
usual, she shopped for a bit, passing by the window every once in a
while to stick her tongue out at them. After the third or fourth
pass, they ignored her for a bit, just waiting for her to decide to
exit the store. It wasn’t until she’d been gone for over an hour
that they realized the woman they saw passing by the window every
ten minutes or so wasn’t May, but an employee who wore similar
colors. When they asked about May, the employee said a man led her
out through the back door. Who knew the place even had a back door
for customers to use?”

“
Is it possible that she
wished to ditch her escorts to meet with a man? Or perhaps she is
under the influence of Dragon’s Desire. It affected Tansy. It could
do the same to any one of you.”

“
Only if we’ve been exposed
to our mate.” April took a sip of her tea. “Drake looked it up in
the ancient texts while you were gone. The dragon’s desire can
confuse a witch who has been exposed to her mate, but not bound to
him.” She shrugged. “I guess you’ll all have to be careful if you
don’t want your mates falling for another guy, huh? Besides, under
the influence or not, it’s just not like May to run off without a
word.”

“
Why
would
she just disappear like that?
She has to know that if she wanted to go out on a date Drake would
let her.”

“
Would he?” Tony moved to
lean against the counter. “I mean, what if the man in question
isn’t a dragon?” He shrugged. Everyone knows that Drake wants to
find dragon mates for you all. What if she’s fallen in love with a
human?”

April’s eyes widened. “Then she might
think that Drake wouldn’t allow her to date a human. A human male
couldn’t protect her as a dragon male could. Intellectually she
would know that, regardless what her heart told her.”

“
And Drake wants to pair you
all off to dragons.” Tony leaned back against the counter and
crossed his legs.

“
That’s not true!” April
released Tansy and stood up. “He would welcome a human male. He
would just want to know that May was happy and protected…” April
paused, her expression pensive. “I’m sure of it.” She thinned her
lips. “No. I
know
it.”

Tansy stood up and joined her sister,
wrapping her arm around her. “I know you want to believe that of
him and I’m sure you’re right. As much as these dragon males want a
mate, I know they would never do something that would make any of
us unhappy.”

She turned to the rest of her sisters,
her arm still wrapped around April, giving her older sister
support. “Having been merged with Tony,” she paused, ignoring her
sisters’ gasps of surprise. “I know he would never impose his will
on any of you and if April feels the same about Drake, I can only
believe it’s true. I don’t think either of them would force any of
us to pass up a chance at happiness with any man just because he
was human.”

Tansy couldn’t blame her sisters for
their skeptical expressions. She never would have believed that
herself if she hadn’t had that mind-blowing kiss with Tony earlier
that showed her exactly what was on his mind.

“
I don’t think she’s taken
off with a man for a date,” June said as she stood and moved to the
stove. She grabbed a tea bag, tossed it in her cup then dumped some
hot water into it from the tea kettle that sat simmering on the
burner. “At least she didn’t take off with the man the clerk said
she left with.” She frowned down into her drink.

“
What makes you say that?”
April moved to refill her cup as well.

“
Because I know she’s not
attracted to the brawny type. I know the woman at the shop. I
called her and she told me the man May left with was huge. She said
he had big arms and legs like tree trunks. May would never run away
with a man like that. Not for a tryst, at any rate.”

“
You’re right,” Tansy
agreed. “I remember most of her complaints about the dragons were
that they were all too big and she didn’t like big.”

“
I have no idea why. It’s
not as though she’s had a bad experience with a big guy,” Ginger
piped in, then tipped her cup back, draining the last of the liquid
from its depths.

Daisy shook her head vehemently, her
platinum hair flying about her shoulders, her amber eyes flashing.
“She’s probably out doing whatever it was she did once or twice a
month for her charity work.” She pushed her own cup away and
grabbed a cookie from the plate in front of her. “I’d bet that
she’s off somewhere doing whatever it is she does to raise money
for her favorite charity. She was complaining to me that she
drained her bank account last month to see that they got their
usual check. It’s hard to keep money in our accounts when we aren’t
allowed to go to work anymore.”

“
What
is
her favorite charity?” Drake asked
with a frown. “She could have asked me to help them. I would be
happy to take over
all
of your obligations. After all, I was the one who thought it
best for you all to quit working for the time being.”

Tony moved to stand behind Tansy.
“Maybe we could find her through them.”

Viktor strode in with one of his men.
Tansy wasn’t sure, but she thought the other man’s name was
Aleksander. “Find who through whom?”

“
May has disappeared. She
ditched her escort at the mall and we haven’t heard from her since.
We thought we might start our search by calling her favorite
charity.” Drake took April’s hand and kissed the center of her
palm. “Do not worry, my love. We shall find her before any harm
befalls her.”

Jasmine crossed her arms in front of
her. “I’m not even going to try to help you guys.” Her green eyes
flashed, her short brown hair standing up in disarray. “Everyone
knows that the only thing I can conjure are dead things and I’d
rather not try to use my magic to find one of my
sisters.”

A few of the other women just waved
dismissively, as though they expected as much from Jasmine. What
good could there come of a witch who could only manifest something
dead?

“
Has anyone thought to
search her room? Maybe there’s something in there that could give
us a clue.” This came from the usually silent, Ivy.

Her red hair curled around her face as
though she’d just showered and let her curly locks dry without
adding any product to it. She probably had.

Tansy couldn’t see any of them taking
the time to straighten their hair or put on makeup if one of their
sisters had gone missing. They may not be related by blood, but
they were sisters just the same.

“
Ivy’s right. We need to
search her room. May has been in contact with someone about this,
perhaps there is something in her room that will tie it all
together.”

An hour later they all sat in May’s
room, chins in hand, wondering where their errant sister had
gone.

“
I can’t believe her room is
so clean.” Rose wrinkled her nose.

“
I can’t either.” Tansy
moved to the make-up table and deliberately knocked over two
lipsticks that stood side by side like little soldiers. “How can
anyone be so stinking organized?”

Daisy laughed. “No one is as
disorganized as you, Tansy. A working daycare run by wild monkeys
would be more organized than you are.”

Tansy stuck her tongue out at her.
“Shut up. You’re just jealous that I can find everything when I
need it. Your room looks clean but you can’t find anything when you
go looking.”

“
Organized chaos?” Tony
asked as he moved up beside her and kissed her ear. “We should
probably get out of here. There doesn’t seem to be any clues and
sitting in here messing things up will only serve to make your
sister mad when she does come home.”

Tansy could have kissed him
for his optimism. He didn’t say
if
May came home, but when.

“
I have no doubt that it was
she who devised her escape. I just don’t know why she would feel
the need to do so.” Tony winked at her and took her
hand.

“
Neither can I,” April said
from Drake’s lap. “This is all so not like her.”

Tony reached over to pick up the
lipsticks she’d knocked down and moved a small bottle of perfume in
the process. Beneath the bottle was a small, folded napkin. Tansy
looked at the glass surface, noticing for the first time, that
every bottle had the same small napkin folded beneath
it.

She pulled one out for
further inspection and noticed it was a cocktail napkin. “When did
May ever go to a place called the
Purring
Pussycat
?”

“
What?” Ginger sat forward,
her hand to her throat and eyes wide. “She’s been
there?”

Tansy held up one of the napkins. “It
would seem so.” She moved another bottle and grabbed another napkin
to unfold it. “Yep. Here’s another one.”

Tansy glanced at Ginger who still sat
with her hand to her throat, the color washed from her face.
“What’s the matter?”

The rest of her sisters joined in when
they, too, noticed Ginger’s pallor.

“
Okay, sister, you’re
scaring me now,” Daisy said. “What’s the
Purring Pussycat
? By the look on your
face, it can’t be good.”

Ginger licked her lips.
“Well…the
Purring Pussycat
is a…a gentleman’s club.”

“
That’s a strip club in
Gingerese,” Marigold said from across the room.

“
I knew that.” Tansy scowled
at her sister.

“
Yeah, but the guys didn’t.
Someone had to tell them,” Mari said with a shrug.

“
Somehow, I don’t think any
of
us
had to tell
them what Ginger meant,” Tansy said with a wry grin. “I think they
all knew that already.”

* * * *

Tony wanted to laugh at mischievous
look in Marigold’s beautiful green eyes. “Your sister is correct.
I’m sure we could have figured it out, little sister.”

Mari flashed him a grin, then grabbed
the napkin the others were passing around. “I have an idea. It’s a
crazy one,” she paused to shrug, “but what do we have to
lose?”

Everyone turned their attention to
Marigold, who didn’t seem to fit her name like most of the other
sisters. Her blueblack hair and green eyes did little to remind him
of a marigold.

“
What is your idea?” Viktor
asked, his face pulled into a frown.

“
Well…” She pressed her lips
together and looked around. “Don’t shoot me for suggesting it, but
I happen to know that May has been donating a thousand dollars a
month to the local abused children’s shelter.”

“
Where in the world is she
getting a thousand dollars a month?” April asked, looking at each
of them as though they would know the answer.

Ginger cleared her throat. “Well…” she
paused to look down at her fingers twisting together on the table.
“You all know that I work two weekends a month and make good money
on those two weekends, don’t you?”

“
No. We all thought you were
living so well on the money Mom and Dad left us.” Rose’s comment
was a bit on the sarcastic side.

“
What are you talking about?
They never left us money. They only left us property.” Ginger
frowned.

“
Yeah,” Mari joined the
conversation. “I think they gave all the money to the
boys.”